new-age-yoga-hippe hocus-pocus

It is 1:30am, but I just HAD to share some really cool stuff with you!

I have blogged about visualization and goal setting in the past, but this post kind of elaborates on WHY goal setting and visualization is useful, and not merely a fad or a bunch of new-age-yoga-hippie hocus-pocus.

Have you ever been in a situation where you’re pal is raving to you about this awesome new novel he or she is reading, and then you find yourself spotting that book everywhere you go; the chick beside you the bus is reading it, your professor is carrying it to class all of sudden, there is a massive ad about it on the side of a bus?
This has happened to me SO MANY times! And it always blows my mind and I always think it is the miraculous power of the universe and it’s energy. Ha! Sound like a total yoga hippie hocus-pocus gal eh?!

Well, the reason this happens is because of this super cool part of your brain called the RETICULAR ACTIVATING SYSTEM(RAS). It is kind of like the secretary you are so afraid to lose to your office colleague, or simply a filtering system of all information that comes to you from the external world.

The RAS is such an incredible body of cells; I say this because it has to deal with A WHOLE LOT OF information, all at once.
I mean, imagine HOW MUCH info is constantly coming at you: sights, sounds, feeling, taste, and it is the RAS that deals with ALL of it.
It prioritizes things and shifts our attention to what is important.

Imagine if we didn’t have the RAS? We would be in a total state of confusion and chaos.

Have you ever been at a noisy dinner party conversing with your old classmate, when all of a sudden you hear someone standing eight feet away from you mention your name, and all of a sudden your attention shifts from your conversation to their conversation? That’s your RAS baby!

Your RAS is linked to both your subconscious thought and conscious thought. So even when you are not consciously thinking about that novel your pal was talking about, or paying attention to anything other than the conversation you are engaged in, your subconscious mind is picking out the target information and noticing it everywhere you go, or drawing your attention it at all times.

So, why do I think the RAS is so freaking cool? Other than it finally making it clear to me that, perhaps, it isn’t the universe which is doing all these crazy things, but actually my own freaking brain!
Well, it is so freaking cool because we can use this knowledge of how the RAS functions, and use it our advantage!

We can use it in goal setting and achieving our DREAMS!

So, we know that the RAS deals with external information, and we know that once it gets the appropriate information it will subconsciously be on the look out for it. So, instead of the RAS receiving arbitrary information and choosing what is a priority based on our subconscious thought; wecan actually provide it with this information by a) verbally repeating our goals b) writing them down, and c) visualizing them.
The RAS doesn’t know the difference between what is real and what is imagined.

A perfect example is, remember last month when watching a show on Amazonian insects on the discovery channel and all of a sudden you felt like those creepy crawlies were all over you?!
Or when you stayed the night at your cousins house, and when all the lights were off you looked towards the silhouette of the chair by the window, but for a good ten seconds you were CONVINCED it was a man with top hat on.

So, it is this same way that the RAS is so gullible and will believe whatever thoughts or ideas you give it.

So, use your imagination to your advantage, and visualize your goals and ALWAYSmake sure they are positive ones.
And really truly BELIEVE that you can achieve them.You have to believe it in order for the RAS to believe it; only this way will the RAS make it happen by paving a path for you, allowing things to magically fall into the right place.

Cool right? The brain is SO AWESOME! I could read about it all day! I want to know EVERYTHING about it!

We have so much more control over our brains than we think. We can rewire it, shape it, and alter it to whatever we want. It isn’t easy… I know this first hand, but it is DEFINITELy doable!